The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) in Edgecomb is proud to announce that the school has been awarded “Best Private Elementary School” in Maine by Down East Magazine. 

CTL serves students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8. The school’s mission is to provide a joyful education for students and to teach using research-based best practices in education. CTL is a demonstration school where teachers from around the world come to learn. The school was founded by Nancie Atwell in 1990 and is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. 

When students enroll at CTL, they become part of a community of learners who are curious about the world and how it works. The school equips kids with skills to explore their ideas and emphasizes communication, so students learn how to share those ideas clearly with others. CTL students form strong, respectful relationships with their teachers and with the other students in their classes. The Center for Teaching and Learning is a school where individual children are respected, accepted, and known for who they are and what they can do. Every decision made by any teacher is based on intimate knowledge of a student’s strengths and goals and the teacher’s best assessment of what a child needs in order to become a humane, productive grown-up. Learn more about the kind of students who attend CTL. 

CTL is honored to be the recipient of this designation, especially because the school is not a traditional private school in several important ways. CTL highly values accessibility for students and families of all socio-economic levels. Nearly ten years ago, CTL’s founder, Nancie Atwell, received the Global Teacher Prize from the Varkey Foundation and donated the full prize, one million dollars, to fund tuition assistance from 2015-2025. Using funding provided by the Global Teacher Prize, CTL expanded outreach to low-income families. CTL almost tripled the number of low-income families the school supports. In the past nine years, between 10% and 30% of the student population was identified by the state as at or below the federal poverty level each year. On average each year, 30% of CTL’s students received tuition support provided by the Global Teacher Prize. Another 30% of the students’ tuitions are paid with public funding provided by their towns.  Having a full range of area students allows CTL’s classrooms to look much like those of their public school counterparts, an important factor in the school’s mission as a demonstration school. Teachers from all over the US and the world come to the school to observe, work with, and learn from CTL’s experienced teachers. CTL exists in collaboration with public schools, as a small laboratory that shows what can be possible when schools focus on students doing authentic, meaningful work while feeling safe and secure in their educational community. 

Thank you very much to all the school’s supporters and voters for this honor. 

CTL’s goal is for every child to know that school is a place where they belong. If you would like to learn more about the school, please visit the website or come to the Fall Open House on Oct. 27 from 3:30 to 5 p.m.